Report: Southampton 2 Crystal Palace 3

24 January 2015

Palace battled back from a losing position twice to book their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup after seeing off Southampton 3-2 thanks to a Marouane Chamakh brace and Yaya Sanogo’s first goal for the club.

A breathless first half saw Alan Pardew’s side slip behind early doors thanks to a Graziano Pelle goal but the returning Chamakh quickly pulled his side level. Scott Dann then conceded an own goal before Sanogo struck, and then Chamakh added a third on 38 minutes to give the Eagles a lead they’d never surrender.

Pardew’s side held on to clinch their fourth win in a row under his management and knock the Saints out of the cup on their own patch in an impressive display - a far cry from their defeat at Selhurst to the same opposition less than a month ago.

The game began at a frantic pace with both sides finding plenty of space to attack each other, and after Wilfried Zaha had seen a shot just miss the target in the opening minute, the Saints grabbed an early lead.

After winning a corner, James Ward-Prowse whipped the ball in and after a brief scramble Graziano Pelle managed to prod the ball home from a couple of yards out despite Joel Ward and Wayne Hennessey’s best efforts to prevent it crossing the line.

But the Eagles responded three minutes later with a goal of their own, stunning Southampton with a swift counter-attack. James McArthur won the ball on the edge of his own box and found Zaha who burst forward before releasing Yaya Sanogo. The striker shot powerfully from a tight angle which Fraser Forster did well to claw away, but he couldn’t stop Marouane Chamakh sliding in to score on his return from injury.

Chamakh and Sanogo were showing signs of a blossoming partnership up top and the Arsenal loanee went close soon after when he was picked out by a brilliant ball from the outside of the Moroccan’s foot and forced Forster into a good stop, but a minute later the Saints found themselves back in front.

James Ward-Prowse found Ryan Bertrand on the left who managed to keep the ball in play and drove it into the box, but as Scott Dann tried to cut out the cross he could only inadvertently steer it past Hennessey into his own net.

A topsy-turvy cup tie then saw a fourth goal in the opening 21 minutes when Sanogo registered his first Eagles goal to once again restore parity. A risky ball across his own box by Ward was hoofed clear by Damien Delaney, but it fell kindly for Zaha who managed to divert it into space and slip in the French striker who buried the chance.

Ward-Prowse and Steven Davis then saw shots from 25 yards whistle past Hennessey’s upright but it was Palace who would get their noses front for the first time in the contest on 38 minutes. After some fantastic build-up play from Zaha, Ward’s clipped ball over the top of the Saints defence found Chamakh inside the area who controlled the ball on his chest to take it past Forster and slot into the net.

The scoring subsided enough for the half-time whistle to be blown but five minutes after the restart Palace nearly added a fourth when Dann came close to making amends for his own goal by heading a corner narrowly over, before the contest began to take on a normal pace after an explosive opening.

Southampton’s shooting had become more desperate as they got closer to exiting the competition and Palace restricted them to attempts from long range which weren’t close to troubling Hennessey, and therefore the second 45 minutes wasn’t a patch on the rollercoaster that had been the first half.

But with three minutes to go the Welsh stopper had to be alert when a short free-kick was played to Eljero Elia who hammered the ball towards the top corner from 20 yards but the Palace keeper managed to flick it over the crossbar with a diving stop to seal his side's spot in the fifth round.